“I have Western going all the way in one of them, that’s my upset bracket,” DeKeyser said after the Wings’ morning skate at Joe Louis Arena Thursday morning before learning Western Michigan’s fate against Syracuse. “And then I have Kansas in another one.”

The Broncos fell 77-53 to Syracuse in the second round of the tournament. He won’t learn Kansas’ outcome until Friday.

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DeKeyser, who played hockey at WMU, isn’t the player in the locker room sticking with the teams played hockey for.

“(Justin Abdelkader) and I got back and forth about Wisconsin and (Michigan) State,” Brendan Smith said. “(Luke Glendening) isn’t as vocal but he will be about Michigan. Everybody is saying that State will win, so that’s interesting.

“I think that’s cool as a fourth seed that a lot of the analysts think that State is going to win,” Smith continued. “Funny thing is me and Abby don’t think that. But we do think the Big Ten schools will do well.”

Like DeKeyser, Glendening picked Kansas to win it all.

“No,” Glendening said when asked if he picked Michigan to win it all. “I probably shouldn’t say that out loud, but no. I have them going pretty far but not winning it.”

Glendening has the second-seeded Wolverines, who played Thursday night against Wofford, falling in the Elite 8 to Duke.

“I don’t know why, I feel kind of bad saying it out loud but for right now that’s what I have,” Glendening said. “I always have the worst brackets, too so maybe that’ll bring Michigan good luck.”

His Final Four are Villanova, Kansas, Louisville and Arizona.

“Definitely not Michigan State,” Glendening said.

Drew Miller is sticking with his alma mater.

“I’ve got Michigan State winning it,” Miller said proudly. “That’s all that matters, Michigan State. They’re healthy right now and ready to go so I think they’ll be hard to beat.”

The Spartans topped Delaware 93-78 to reach the third round.

“You have a good run in your league playoff and then everyone’s kind of excited and sees you win that,” said Miller, whose Spartans won the Big Ten tournament last Sunday. “I always had them going, if they were healthy they had a good chance.”

Jimmy Howard also has Kansas winning it all.

“Don’t ask me how I got there, I just pretty much flipped a coin,” said Howard, who grew up a Syracuse fan. “Syracuse has been struggling down the road here. When it comes to bragging right within the room you’ve got to pick carefully.”

Crosby an MVP candidate

Sidney Crosby is running away with the scoring title, heading into play Thursday with a league-leading 91 points.

“Just like all the best players I’ve coached, elite, elite, elite competitors,” said Wings coach Mike Babcock, who has coached Crosby at two Olympics. “Drive train is second to none. He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s so thick and so powerful and a great, great skater. He gets a step on you. No different than a guy like (Jonathan) Toews, (Pavel) Datsyuk or (Henrik) Zetterberg. He’s just on another level.”

“He’s not a rah-rah guy at all, he works,” Babcock said. “When you talk about superstars everyone thinks it’s because of their skillset. All the best ones I’ve coached – Crosby and Toews, (Nicklas) Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, it’s because of their drive train, their will to win, their determination, their attention to detail. That’s what makes them better than everybody else. They have an unbelievable skill set to go with it, but there’s a lot of guys with skill set that don’t have that determination that end up being good players who play on a lot of teams.”

Then asked if Crosby is the league’s MVP Babcock joked, “Who’s in the running? I’m just trying to survive here. I don’t even know. Right now I think it’s Glendening. No, I’m just kidding.”

Send comments to chuck.pleiness@macombdaily.com and visit his blog at redwingsfront.wordpress.com